A Gift of Champions
by Qi Okami
Summary: It is Lance's birthday and Lyra decides to try her hand at baking, with advice from Erika. However, she discovers that Lance is actually very good at lying. What will she do to teach him a lesson? Fluff one-shot.


**The Gift of Champions**

_Author's Note: _Another little one-shot that I did. Don't worry, I'm still working on both my Hand of Friendship and Immortals After, but I've got to take a break sometimes, and my friend dared me to do a fluff fanfic, and anyone who's read Hand of Friendship knows I don't have a scrap of fluffiness in me. But I've given this my best shot. Enjoy!

_Disclaimer: _I own my SoulSilver team and my Ruby team and my Leafgreen team and my Black team, yes I do, but I don't own Pokemon and never will.

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><p>Lyra looked down at the pie with pride. The edges were burnt, the rest of the crust looked undercooked, and the top was suspiciously flat but it was—to her eyes—unmistakably, a pie.<p>

The current Champion of Johto had never tried her hand at baking before. What did a trainer need with baking skills anyway? They would hardly come in handy during battle.

_At least I can show off some womanly skills,_ she reminded herself firmly. _After all, it is his birthday, and since I can't bake a cake worthy of being called a cupcake even…a pie should be okay._

She had been dating Lance for a few months now and while the majority of the people adored her as much as they adored their now-former Champion, there were those who felt the dragon master had chosen poorly. _Like his grandfather and the rest of his uptight clan, _Lyra thought darkly. They called her a young, ignorant girl who could not hope to be a wife worthy of bearing a successor to Blackthorn's heir.

She had told Lance none of this. He loved her not because she was shy and coy but because she was fierce and smart and free as the wind. He loved her because of who she was.

And she adored him for it. He was a sweet, caring man and that's why she'd swallowed her pride as Champion and asked Gym Leader Erika to teach her to bake a pie.

And she had finally managed to make something...edible. Weeks of practicing in secret finally yielded results and she would now be able to give him his favorite dessert.

She did so love to surprise him. Lance was a man unaccustomed to pleasant surprises; he was battle-hardened and years of holding his post after Red left for Mt. Silver had made him careworn.

Lyra shook herself from her musings. She needed to take the pie to Lance before it cooled.

O-o-O

Lyra found Lance where she knew she would: on the Champion's battlefield, training. She might be Champion of Johto, but she had retained Lance's post as Champion of Kanto, needing his advice and guidance to run two regions at once.

Dragonite's cries were loud and fierce as Lance battled against himself, pitting the pseudo-legendary with his Charizard. Lance shouted commands to both, watching their movements critically. Often, he stopped them to demonstrate a move. Lyra waited for him to finish. Once he called off the training, she waved to get his attention.

A broad smile spread over Lance's tired face when he saw her and he hurried to join her in the doorway. "And to what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?" he asked, smiling.

Lyra couldn't help smiling back at him. His words were always sweet and she had no doubt that they were completely sincere. "Happy birthday, Lance. I have brought you a birthday gift," she answered.

"A gift? You shouldn't have." Lance replied. His eyes danced with a sudden, joyous light as he bent his head to kiss her in a quiet display of thanks.

"What kind of gift is it?" he asked as she pushed him back into his seat.

"Not telling," Lyra teased, her eyes sparkling as she smiled down at him. "Just close your eyes, alright?"

He did as told and she hurried back to the hall where the pie was waiting. She placed it quietly on his desk and, fidgeting with the silverware she'd bought, she found herself feeling nervous.

_I beat Red without any fear at all and now I'm nervous of showing Lance a pie?_ she thought, exasperated with her reluctance but unable to do anything about it.

"Open your eyes now."

Lance stared. "A pie?" he asked, confused. "Did you make this?" he asked suddenly, turning to look at her. "For me?"

"Of course for you," Lyra giggled most uncharacteristically.

"You never mentioned that you cooked," Lance replied, laughing. This truly was a surprise and it warmed his heart that she would spend her free time doing this for him.

"I just started learning," Lyra said, omitting the weeks of unsuccessful practice. "From Erika. She's a very good teacher."

"She is, huh?" Without waiting for further invitation Lance picked up the fork, dug out a large chunk, and popped it in his mouth.

Lyra held her breath as she watched him chew and then swallow, her hands clasped tightly together, her palms sweaty. She fought against the urge to ask him about it, not wanting him to see how nervous she really was.

"It's very good," he said, smiling up at her and eating again. "Absolutely delicious," he added, speaking around a mouthful of pie.

Lyra felt a large, foolish smile spread across her face but could do nothing to stop it. He liked it. He said it was delicious!

"Really?" she asked, trying to sound nonplussed. "Do you think so?"

Lance nodded, his mouth too full to answer her. Lyra grinned down at him. All of that hard work finally paid off. He was stuffing his face happily, a grin on his face as he ate and Lyra giggled again. He really was too cute sometimes.

She reached out and picked a small piece of pie for herself. If he liked it that much she didn't want to miss out on anything. She put it in her mouth and choked on the pie at once.

It tasted horrible!

The pie crust was crumbly and full of lumps, betraying her inexperience with baking. The filling was bitter and crunchy with seeds, as if she had stuffed plant seeds into it. The whole thing tasted faintly like soured wine and rotten berries.

"Absolutely delicious?" she growled.

Lance's eyes widened and he put the fork down slowly as Lyra glared at him, her eyes ablaze with anger. He swallowed what he had stuffed in his mouth slowly and tried to clear his throat. It didn't work well as the pie crust was terribly dry and had sucked all the moisture from his mouth.

"Absolutely delicious?" Lyra repeated. "It's disgusting!"

"It's not that bad," Lance mumbled weakly.

"Not that bad? It tastes like…like something a Muk sat on! And you sit there and lie to me and tell me that you like and it you keep shoving this…this _abomination_ into your mouth!"

"I didn't want to hurt you," Lance admitted sheepishly. "It's not bad for your first try…"

Lance's words faded into the background as Lyra seethed with outrage. _First try?_ she repeated to herself. _First try? I've been trying hundreds of times to get this right and he lies about it!_

Lance was still trying to explain his behavior, eyes almost frantic. Lyra's patience towards the dragon master's desperate need for approval snapped suddenly under all the stress of the past year—the managing of two regions, the defending of her title, her relationship issues with Lance, her fights with his clan, the sacrifices she made to become Champion, to beat Red—and before she realized what she had done she'd picked up the pie and dropped it squarely on his flame-haired head.

Silence descended as Lyra stared at Lance in shock. The pie tin slid off the top of his head and fell to the floor with a muted clang. Chunks of pie crust fell to rest on his formerly-pristine cloak and pie filling dripped slowly off his hair. As Lyra watched, fighting down a growing sense of horror, a berry tumbled down Lance's forehead and off the tip of his nose. A soft squeak escaped Lyra's throat as she frantically searched for something, anything, to say.

Lance looked up at her and her throat tightened. It took her a moment to realize that the glint in his eyes was humor and not anger but by that time he had grabbed her around the waist, scooped a handful of pie mess from his hair and rubbed it all over her face.

She shrieked in renewed outrage and tried to shove him away but he persisted in covering her with the mess, rubbing it into her hair and overalls, and even smearing her just-out-of-the-wash Champion's cloak. She managed to wrest herself from his arms but he chased her across the room, howling with laughter as she screamed at him to stop. They tumbled to the floor and Lyra continued to fight but she was pinned to the ground by Lance's weight.

"Give up?" he asked, holding a handful of pie menacingly above her face.

"In your dreams, pie-head," Lyra gasped, defiance in her eyes.

"And that is why I love you," Lance murmured and dropped his head to hers for a gentle kiss. "But you do realize that I must punish you. If word got out that I allowed my girlfriend to treat me this way, Clair would never let me hear the end of this."

"True," Lyra allowed herself a laugh, "but I will tell no one. Perhaps you would allow me this one transgression?"

"Just this once," Lance replied, chuckling.

"I will do my best to show you my gratitude. Oh, and…Lance?"

"Yes?"

"If you ever lie to me again you will regret it. And I mean you will _regret _it."

"Yes, Lyra."

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><p>Author's Note:<p>

There! First fluff-shot! I don't think I'll be doing another fluff piece in a long while (it's so hard!) but I hope you enjoyed this and do review and tell me what you think :)


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